CPI names LS candidates, plans to contest 50 seats

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Sunday announced its first list of 28 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and said it planned to contest 50 seats.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Sunday announced its first list of 28 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and said it planned to contest 50 seats.

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Announcing the list, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan told reporters that the Left parties intended to form a Third Front - excluding the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The party announced eight candidates in Uttar Pradesh, six in Bihar, three each in West Bengal and Maharashtra, two each in Rajasthan, Orissa and Punjab, and one each in Delhi and Gujarat.

Bardhan said the rest of the candidates would be from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. In West Bengal, the Left parties would jointly contest the elections and the seats would be announced March 3, he added.

He said the Left Front had already tied up with regional parties in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, while he hoped that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would join the Third Front after the elections.